Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/647

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pare the hind for Tillage ; the third, fourth, and every fubfe- iequetit ploughing, arc of" infinitely more advantage to the ground, and are done at a much (mailer expence; but the lart pluughmgs will be mod advantageoufly performed in the manner of hoeings. Sec the article Hoeing. The liner any land is made by Tillage, the richer it will be- come, and the more plants it will maintain ; and it has been frequently obferved, that in a large field, where at fome time one part of the ground- has been better tilled than the reft, that part of the ground has produced the heft crops, and been eafily diftinguiihed by it from the reft of the field, even fix or feven crops after the time of the particular good Tillage. A piece of ground being once made finer than the reft, will a long time fhew the advantage of it; becaufe the dews have more power to enrich it, they penetrating farther than the fu- perficies, whereto the roots are able to enter. The fine parts of the earth are impregnated throughout their whole fubftance with fome of the riches carried in by the dews, and there repo - fited until, by Tillage, the infide of thofe fine parts become fuperficies ; and as the corn drains them, they are again fup- plted as before ; but the rough large parts cannot have that be- nefit, and the dews not penetrating but to their ftirface, they .remain poor. The experiments mentioned by Mr. Evelyn prove this beyond conteft. Take of the molt barren earth you can find, powder it well, and expofe it abroad for a year, in- ceflantly agitating it, and after this, without any other manage- ment, this earth will be the moft fertile that can be conceived, and will readily receive any plant from the fartheft Indies : All vegetables will profper and flourifh in this once barren earth, and bear their fruit as kindly with us, under a due degree of artificial heat, as in their native climates. The artificial duff will entertain plants which refufe dung and other violent applications, and has a more nutritive power than any artificial dung or compoft whatfoevcr : And by this pul verifing and expofing, the very nature of a foil may be changed, and the tougheft clay made as light and friable as common light earth, and as fit for the nourifhment of the tendereft plants as any other ; though, in its natural condition, its pores were too fmall to give way to their tender roots, and had no communication one with another. This is a fort of improvement of land that cannot be praclifed in the large way, in fields, &c. but as it only confifts in di- viding and breaking the particles of earth, and expofmg them thus broken to the air, it is plain that common Tillage ap- proaches more or lefs to it, as more or lefs labour is employed ; and the experiment proves, that the farmer need never fear beftowing too much Tillage on any fort of ground. It is without difpute, that what was one cubical foot of the original barren earth, and had in that ftate only fix cubical feet in fuperficies, has after this powdering more than a thou- fand cubic feet of fuperficies in its internal parts. The very pooreft land, and the very richeft, in their natural ftate, do not differ fo much as one, and twenty ; that is, a cubic foot of the richeft land in the world will not produce more vegeta- bles than twenty foot of the pooreft ; and as, in this method of pulvcrifmg, the ground is made greatly more than twenty times richer than it was before, it is a neccilary confequence that any poor land may, by proper Tillage, be made richer than the beft land in the world naturally is. There is alfo another very great advantage, when a foil has a large internal fuperficies in a fmall compafs, as is always the cafe after much Tilling ; which is this, that the roots of plants in it are then better fupplied with nourifhment; their food being nearer to them on ail fides, and more within reach than it can be when the foil is lefs fine, as in common Tillage, and the roots mull extend much farther in the one than in the other, in order to reach an equal quantity of nouriftiment : They mult range and fill perhaps twenty times morefpace, in order to the coming in the way of an equal quantity of food. Hard ground makes too great a refiftance to the palTage of roots, and air makes too fmall a prelTure upon their fuperficies ; in water they have a free pafiage to the utmoft of their extent, and have every where an equal, proper, and even preflure; and in light and fine earths, fuch as thofe divided by an equal and careful Tillage, they have much the fame free pafiage and even preflure as in water.

The general cuftom of farmers is to leave off Tillage juft when they have brought their lands into fuch a condition, that Til- late would be of vail: advantage to them. They ufually fup- pofe the foil to be fine enough, when, with the help of har- rows, they can cover the feed, and afterwards with a roller they break the clods, to the end that if a crop fucceed, they may be able to mow it, without being hindered by tbefe clods, Tull's Horfehoing Hufbandry, p. 24. TILMUS, a term ufed by fome of the medical writers to exprefs the effecl: of a fort of delirium, in which people pull the bed- clothes, or pick out threads from the Iheets. This is ufually efteemed a dangerous fymptom. TIMBER (£>■/.)— The ufes of Timber are fo many, and fo great, that the procuring a fufficient fupply of it, extremely well deferves the care of every ftate ; as it muft he a great dif- advantage to it to be obliged to have recoutfe to its neighbours, and purchafe at a very considerable and continually renewed

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expence, what might, by an eafy ceconomy, be fufEciently fupplied at home.

This ceconomy, however, muft be applied in time; for our natural indolence, our love to reap the advantages of every thing ourfelves, and our little care for pofterky, <*\ ve „ Te ^ t room to fear fucceeding ages will want wood both for private and public exigencies. All our aits fhould be employed on this fubje£i, with two views, the one to preferve and cherifli our growing wood, the other to renew the trees which have been and are continually cut down.

The quantity of acorns that the oak bears, has made many people fuppofe, that nature has taken care for a renewal for us, and that of this vaft quantity of feeds which annually fall, there will be always an over-fuificient fupply of young trees, which will grow up in the place of the old ones : But experience proves, that this is by no means the cafe. The greater number of tbefe fallen acorns are devoured by a number of dif- ferent animals, for whofe nourifhment nature nzs provided that abundance of them : And of thofe which efcape this fate, we are to confider how few can come to good, from the natu- ral accidents they are unavoidably expofed to ; they fall on a covered ground, where dead leaves, and decayed parts of branches of trees, ufually prevent their touching the earth, into which they are to {boot ; or, if they can {hoot here, it is merely from the furface, where they are, in their flow growth, liable, while very tender, to all the inclemencies of frofts; and add to this, that it is very difficult for fuch tender plants as the young feedlings of thefe, to find room for growth or nourishment among the every way fpreading roots of other trees ; and the continual fbade and want of free air, muft ren- der them very weakly and irregular in their growth, even fuppofing them to get over all the other difficulties. It is very certain, that Timber-trees of oak are frequently met with among the underwood of forefts ; but we {hall always find this to be the cafe, not in the clofe places, but in certain fpots where there has been a vacancy or opening ; and that ufually where there are nor, nor have at anytime been, oaks in the neighbourhood of the fpot. The acorns that fall from the oaks ufually come to nothing, from the before-mentioned accidents ; and thefe trees which grow at diftances, are owin» to the acorns brought tliither by birds, and accidentally drop- ped there. This is an inftance familiarly verified, by obferv- ing, that there are frequently little bufhes near woods, which, though of white-thorn or other trees, are ufually furrounded and ornamented with young oaks ; the jays and the like gra- nivorous birds are the authors of this crop ; for, bringing the acorns from the adjoining woods, to eat under thefe bufhes, they drop many by the way, which they do not trouble them- felves to look for on the ground, and which having here a freer ground to ftrike root into, and an open air to grow in, feidom fail of coming to good, unlefs defiroyed while young. In order to the prefcrving our growing Timber-trees, it would be a very ufeful law, that all who cut down any number of oaks, ftiould alfo leave a given number in good condition for after-cutting; and that no Timber fhould be cut down, but at a proper age, in regard to the nature of the foil; fince it is cer- tain, that trees grow to their perfection at very different pe- riods of time, in proportion to the depth of foil they have to grow in ; and that as it is, on the one hand, not for the intereft of the ftate to fuffer trees to be cut till at their perfection for fize and foundnefs, fo, after they are arrived at that perfection, it is equally certain, that they gradually decay. The quality of the foil the tree Itands in, may be necefTary to be obferved to this purpofe; but the quantity or depth of it is the great fubject of enquiry; and a great number of obferva- tions have proved, that the proper feafon for cutting oaks in a foil of two foot and a half deep, is at fifty years old ; thofe which ftand in a foil of three foot and a half deep, fhould not be cut down before feventy years ; and thofe which ftand in a foil of four foot and a half deep, or more than that, will en- creafe in goodnefs and in fize till they are an hundred years old : And obfervation has proved, that after thefe fcveral periods, the trees begin to decay.

Tbisfeems the belt rule to eftahlifh, in regard to the common foils ; but thofe which grow in a lighter or more fandy foil, may have their periods changed from thefe to forty, to fixty, and to eighty years at the greateft depth ; and after thefe times it is always beft to fell the wood meant for public fervice, whether then wanted or not, fince it is much better to keep it in public magazines, than to leave it to be daily decaying. Heaths, and other uncultivated places, where there is no regu- lar growth of wood ; but where fern, and ufelefs plants alone feem to flourifh, ufually afford alfo fome ftraggling trees of the oak. Thefe probably have bad their origin from acorns drop- ped by birds; but thefe feldom grow tall or regular; fince, not having been defended from the injuries of cattle, they are ufually browfed on, and ftunted while young, and fo become crooked and fhort-trunked, or pollard trees. Thefe, though not of fuch value as the more regular oaks, yet defcrve care, both with refpefl to their prefervation and felling ; fince they afford a number of trees naturally bent, and formed for many parts of ftiip-building.

The little care ufually taken of thefe trees, though on this oc-

ctfion